Quoting Ranavalone:

Quote:
And the Yes vote with "another useless contribution" comment is always appreciated.

I never wrote this.

What I wrote now and then lately is "yet another useless birth year", "add birth year, remove birth year... why not" and "add common name, remove common name... why not". But only if someone added a birth year, removed a birth year, added a common name, or removed a common name.

And remember, it was not me who said that version 3.8 will begin the process of improving our cast and crew entry and linking system. And that ideally any replacement system will eliminate the birth year in the online database and the CLT as a name determination tool.

Not only are they valid... but they are also useful! At least until such time a new system is actually in place.

Ken only said he would begin working on a new cast/crew system for 3.8 and that ideally it would do away with the credited as and birth years. That is far from a guarantee. So you never know if these will or will not be needed once the new system is done. Which means these updates may be just as useful once the new system is in place as they are now.

And yes removing a common name could be just as useful as adding it... since common names change as time goes by. So even though it may have been needed for linking at one time. It could need to be removed for linking at another time.

I personally am thankful for all contributions no matter how little they are or how often they are made. As long as they are accurate and correct per the rules and Ken's clarification I am thrilled to see them.

Quoting Addicted2DVD:

Quote:
Not only are they valid... but they are also useful! At least until such time a new system is actually in place.

Ken only said he would begin working on a new cast/crew system for 3.8 and that ideally it would do away with the credited as and birth years. That is far from a guarantee. So you never know if these will or will not be needed once the new system is done. Which means these updates may be just as useful once the new system is in place as they are now.

And yes removing a common name could be just as useful as adding it... since common names change as time goes by. So even though it may have been needed for linking at one time. It could need to be removed for linking at another time.

I personally am thankful for all contributions no matter how little they are or how often they are made. As long as they are accurate and correct per the rules and Ken's clarification I am thrilled to see them.

I would not go so far to call by additions or removals not useless. Currently by is our discriminator between people of the same name. Its not perfect but it was a decent answer to avoid possible conflicts with another product. Removal of valid by data is useless and only has to be replaced. Similarly addition of NY data for a dogleg name is likewise useless as there is nothing tobdiscriminate from. We are not out to capture everyone's by.

As to the Clyde and CA system Pete; I see no way to handle it any other unless we are going to go back to totally user generated cast and crew data which will have little or no connection to any hard data, the database will become a work of fiction. With wild west implications, one user wants Arnold and another thinks it should be Arnie, no thank you. We have tobhave a hard data source and we have one.

To expand a bit further. Where could data come from, IMDB?, already a work of fiction generated by its users. We would have to pay a licence fee to use this fiction, say goodbye to $30 profiler and probably free program updates. Or continue use the hard data from the films/TV as credited, what was the last film made by IMDB, I will take the data from filmmakers any day of the week, which does mean a link system is needed, the Clt for all its flaws is probably best for the linking.

OK, Pete. I was taking your comment in a broader form.

Crime was added to the Genre section relatively late. By that time lots of "crime" films, TV detectives etc. were already in the database with e.g. Suspense/Thriller as genre, so I'm not surprised to see additions of the Crime genre at all.

Grendell
I can understand your sentiment. But the common name serves as a way to link multiple iterations of thebsame name. It would be very nice if people getting the credit would use a single variant for all their work...but they won't. I remember one sound man who was listed 5 different ways over 5 weeks on a TV show. The system w e use islikely the best system that could be created and it's not perfect

Quoting Addicted2DVD:

Quote:
Sure I would love to see something better worked out... but for now it is the only way we have to get the right DVDs linked together and the wrong DVDs separated apart.

Same here. The current situation is not ideal, but when to choose between standing back and complaining and trying to make the best out of it... I try to do that.